Commodities Drag TSX Below 10,000 - Canadian Commentary

By IBT Staff Reporter On 07/06/09 AT 11:32 AM

RTTNews - Bay Street stocks plunged on Monday morning as commodities saw significant weakness across the board. The decline took Toronto's main index below the key 10,000 mark to its lowest level in nearly two weeks.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index dropped 345.74 points or 3.36% to 9,937.36. The index lost a little more than 100 points last week.

Mining stocks have dropped 6.1% with copper showing a 6.05-cent decline to $2.2435 a pound. First Quantum (FM.TO) has plummeted 8.4%, Inmet (IMN.TO) has dropped 6.5% and HudBay (HBM.TO) has lost 4.8%.

Teck Resources (TCK.B.TO) is down 4% after the company said it expects average transportation costs, including rail and port costs, to be in the range of $33 to $35 per tonne for 2009, compared to previous guidance of $35 to $37 per tonne. Teck shares were upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Bank of America.

Materials stocks have dropped 5% and gold stocks are off 4.5% as the precious metal has lost $8.60 to $922.30 an ounce. Kinross (K.TO) has lost 5.2% after the stock was downgraded to Sector Perform from Sector Outperform at Scotia Capital.

Energy stocks are down 5.1% as crude oil has declined $2.40 to $64.33. Suncor (SU.TO) has plunged 7.6%, Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO) is down 6.7% and Encana (ECA.TO) has dropped 4.25%.

In corporate news, WestJet (WJA.TO) said its June load factor was 72.9%, 3.6 points decline from 76.5% in the year-ago period. The stocks has dropped 3.25%.

Pet Valu (PVC.TO) is up 3.1% after the company agreed to be acquired by certain affiliates of Roark Capital Group for $13.68 in cash or approximately $143.7 million.